Rach 2 with fingerings

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Yo does anyone know where I can get my hands on the rach 2 with fingerings?  I need fingerings...

[pytheamateur]

Yo does anyone know where I can get my hands on the rach 2 with fingerings?  I need fingerings...

I posed the same question 3 years ago and got a reply from a big-headed conservatoire student telling me that if I need fingering suggestions then I'm not ready to play the piece.

I have the edition by the Japanese company Zen On.  It has a section in the beginning before the score discussing alternative fingerings for small hands for a small number of passages.  The text discussing fingering is in Japanese only, so it wasn't that helpful for me.

[j_menz]

I posed the same question 3 years ago and got a reply from a big-headed conservatoire student telling me that if I need fingering suggestions then I'm not ready to play the piece.

I have the edition by the Japanese company Zen On.  It has a section in the beginning before the score discussing alternative fingerings for small hands for a small number of passages.  The text discussing fingering is in Japanese only, so if wasn't that helpful for me.

It was good advice then, and still holds.

So Rach4, you either learn Japanese or you learn to work out your own. Both useful, but I'd recommend the latter here.

[flashyfingers]

Dover. I got this book, the fingerings are not very important. You should use your own fingerings. Also, if you work on it with a pro, you won't learn things the wrong way, or make sure to watch performances, perhaps Lisitsa's solo piano performance of it, in slow-mo?

https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Concertos-Nos-Full-Score/dp/0486263509/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407717222&sr=1-1&keywords=rachmaninoff+piano+concertos

[flashyfingers]

Oops! Spoke too soon. This book only has fingerings for the first concerto, and not for the second or third.

GET YER OWN FINGERINGS!!! You can always post a topic about it. It's a popular concerto.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

It was good advice then, and still holds.

So Rach4, you either learn Japanese or you learn to work out your own. Both useful, but I'd recommend the latter here.

I already know Japanese and I'm lazy and don't feel like working it out on my own.  

Edit:  just kidding I don't know Japanese lol

[david456103]

i don't get why everybody's saying that if "someone needs fingerings for a piece like this then they're not ready to play it". Sure, one should be able to figure out the fingerings for themselves, but it never hurts to see someone else's take on how to execute a particular passage. In fact, lots of the advanced works, some even more advanced than the Rach 2(ballades, liszt etudes, gaspard, etc) have editions with suggested fingerings.
 

[flashyfingers]

i don't get why everybody's saying that if "someone needs fingerings for a piece like this then they're not ready to play it". Sure, one should be able to figure out the fingerings for themselves, but it never hurts to see someone else's take on how to execute a particular passage. In fact, lots of the advanced works, some even more advanced than the Rach 2(ballades, liszt etudes, gaspard, etc) have editions with suggested fingerings.
 

it doesn't even mean the fingerings are what EVERY pro pianist ever must use or your hand will fall off.

Just remember, Rach4. Richter said, "the two hands must help each other. Help your right hand with your left." This is about chunky chords and fast passages and hand crossing. The two hands work together, not against each other!

[quantum]

After working your fingerings, you could approach a publisher to print them in your own edition.  It would do a lot of good in dispelling the stigma that fingerings are of no use to advanced works and pianists.

[pytheamateur]

After working your fingerings, you could approach a publisher to print them in your own edition.  It would do a lot of good in dispelling the stigma that fingerings are of no use to advanced works and pianists.

How much would it cost? 

[j_menz]

i don't get why everybody's saying that if "someone needs fingerings for a piece like this then they're not ready to play it". Sure, one should be able to figure out the fingerings for themselves, but it never hurts to see someone else's take on how to execute a particular passage. In fact, lots of the advanced works, some even more advanced than the Rach 2(ballades, liszt etudes, gaspard, etc) have editions with suggested fingerings.
 

The word in question is "needs".  Of course we all from time to time find fingering suggestions a useful shortcut; but they aren't always available.

There's plenty of advanced repertoire where you don't have a choice of edition. The ability to work out your own fingering from scratch is essential if one is to have the freedom to play outside the well trodden mainstream.

[stevensk]

If there is some special part of the concert that you have problem whith I can hand over my personal fingering

[cabbynum]

Fingerings are merely suggestions given by some person. But really so are the fingerings my teacher gives me. It's still helpful though. It doesn't hurt. But fingering is a very personal matter as no hand is the same. But if you watch the discussion about fingering with Marc Andre Hamelin we will bring to light some very interesting fingering for certain passages that I never would have thought of.

A friend of mine doesn't like when a figure repeats itself moving up or down the piano but the book gives a different fingering depending on where the figure falls. He says why not just use the same fingering all the way through? And that makes perfect sense to me! Also his playing is freaking amazing I  trust his judgement when it comes to anything piano related! He's on the forums I'll bet he sees this and I'll bet he knows who I'm talking about...


Anyway, if the piece doesn't have fingerings, no big deal wrote your own in. I change fingering all the time especially in Bach, holy hell. There are so many different ways you can finger Bach, you just gotta pick one and stick with it!
K- Zizzle sometiems even has 3-4 different fingerings per piece.

Learn to work out your own but also go by the book as a suggestion, or a starting point. When it's given by the composer I'll generally follow it through to the end. Check out the fingerings in Alkan op.39 no.1, some of it is weird weird weird but if you pick like a 5 measure section of the weird fingering and follow it, you'll have at speed more securely and quicker than a more obvious fingering.




Just my long 2 cents

[j_menz]

K- Zizzle

Umm... who?

When it's given by the composer I'll generally follow it through to the end. Check out the fingerings in Alkan op.39 no.1, some of it is weird weird weird but if you pick like a 5 measure section of the weird fingering and follow it, you'll have at speed more securely and quicker than a more obvious fingering.

I'd suggest that depends on the composer and the piece. Skilled pianist's etudes are a special case, where the suggested fingering is part of the puzzle and one would be well advised to follow it.

More generally, just a serving suggestion. And some composers seem to have had some very weird habits, probably best not copied.

[cabbynum]

Umm... who?

I'd suggest that depends on the composer and the piece. Skilled pianist's etudes are a special case, where the suggested fingering is part of the puzzle and one would be well advised to follow it.

More generally, just a serving suggestion. And some composers seem to have had some very weird habits, probably best not copied.

Krystian Zimmerman


I look at the fingerings given as a helpful little hint that should honestly be all it is for anyone. If you rely fully on someone elses ideas then where are you growing? I like fingerings in a piece but I am also fine without them, its fun to see how someone else would do it at times.

[j_menz]

Krystian Zimmerman

Zimerman.

And I doubt he's a K-Zizzle kinda guy, somehow.

[cabbynum]

Zimerman.

And I doubt he's a K-Zizzle kinda guy, somehow.

Why can't I ever spell his name right?!?! I second guess myself everytime.

Based on our Sunday brunches I think K- Zizzle is all for his nickname